Thursday, May 21, 2009

groupies

We have our medium sized group tonight.
Group is a funny world. We have 15 people in ours and we really like 14 of them.

The question is always what to do for the evening...

I went on a two day retreat about a week ago that was really good. From the drive out to the lake house on, I was questioning almost everything we did. We started in the van by telling our stories and immediately I was thinking, "can't we just talk about Saget or what's up with the swine flu?"

We didn't.

We told our stories...and now I know a little more about my team. It was a good thing.

For two days it was like that. I kept thinking, "can't we just cut out of here early?" but we never did...and it was always a good thing. Our leader pushed us to do stuff that we (or at least I) didn't want to do...and it was always a good thing. We got to know each other. We pushed through uncomfortable and went into depth.

So that's the balance with small groups. You want to push to do something that will challenge people, but you don't want the one person to say, "This sucks" or the whole group to throw grape seed oil in your eye and laugh as you try to rinse it out with water. Oil and water don't mix. That's really the lesson. And quit it with the oil Scott!

So tonight we'll attempt to get a little bit uncomfortable together...and see if somehow that leads to a deeper sense of community. Or maybe we'll just bond over the fact that group was awful?

And I was kidding about the 14 out of 15 people. We like everyone, that's why we put the group together that way. We sort of stacked the deck with this bunch.